Just Finished Reading… The Gospel Of Loki and The Testament Of Loki by Joanne Harris

 I was looking on Apple Books for Honeycomb, the latest book by Joanne Harris, best known as the author of that gentle novel Chocolat, when I discovered she has also written some quirky fantasy novels in a series called Runes. The premise is that, after  Ragnarok, among other things, the runes that were so important for magic, or glam as it’s called in this series, are scattered through the alternative Worlds. Some of the Norse gods managed to survive it and escape from their prisons in the Netherworld, although there are problems for them. Children in one world are born with rune marks. 

After establishing that Honeycomb was too big a download for now, I couldn’t resist reading the two prequels to the main series, The Gospel of Loki and The Testament Of Loki, both about the Norse myths as seen from the viewpoint of our favourite trickster god. 

Or, rather, not really a god, as such. This Loki is originally a fire demon, coming from Chaos into a world based on Order. He is brought by Odin(known as the General or the Old Man), who needs his particular skills, and puts a rune on to Loki’s arm, so he can’t return to Chaos without its ruler, Surt, knowing where he has been and punishing him horribly. 

He enjoys all the pleasures of his new home, though he never does get his own hall, just a small back room in Asgard, but no matter how many times he saves the day through his intelligence and quick wits, he is never considered “one of us”. 

Eventually there is a “last straw” moment, when he realises finally that he will never be accepted, that even the one he believed would protect him has betrayed him, and decides to get his revenge.

Really, you can see why he has done all those dreadful things, including the killing of Baldur. 

 If you like Crowley from Good Omens, you should like this version of Loki.

In the sequel, Loki, who has been chained up in the Netherworld next to his son, the Midgard Serpent, works out how to escape, with the giant snake’s help, and finds himself popping out of a computer game into the body of Jumps, a teenage girl in our world. 

Jumps is not impressed to find herself sharing a mind and body with a Norse god, although she might not have minded so much if it was Thor. (She has been watching too many movies).

However, she hasn’t much choice and Loki really can’t leave just yet. He is unbodied, for one thing. And some scary things will happen if he and his host don’t stop them. 

There is an actual character arc in this book. Although Loki does understandably want to save his own skin, once he has one, he finds himself, much to his horror, “corrupted” with caring for his host. Jumps has some big problems in her life. She is bullied. She has an eating disorder. She has been terrified at coming out as gay.

Loki, while in her body, does what he can to fix these issues. How embarrassing! But he does it all in a trickster way, so not sentimentally.

And they have an adventure saving the world(or Worlds) from some of Loki’s old antagonists…

I read these two novels in about three days and am looking forward to reading the main sequence of this series, after the sequel to Chocolat. I got them in Apple Books, though you should be able to find them in print or Kindle.